Monday, June 09, 2008

I always try and entitle my posts with some clever play on words. Not this time. Last Thursday we did something way extreme and I wanted to have that reflected in an edgy post title. What we did was, we bought tickets to White Rabbits, and saw about half the set, and then, all spur of the moment, we decided to bail and go to DC9 to catch These New Puritans. It's not wild on the level of snorting coke off of Lindsey Lohan's ass crack in Ibiza, but it's about as close as I get these days.

Us, last Thursday (artist's rendering)

We didn't bail on White Rabbits because they sucked. I thought they were actually pretty good. I'm seeing more and more of the double drummer attack these days. Not only did White Rabbit have two guys drumming, but one was using a maraca instead of a drumstick. This is akin to using a violin instead of a guitar pick, or to bring it down to a level you people will understand, using a chunk of broccoli to cut a piece of steak. White Rabbit also had two vocalists--one bespectacled Chris Martin-type sensitive guy on keyboards, and another dude who looked like Rodney Dangerfield's son from Back to School, on guitar. This is a band that builds redundancy into the system--if, like Lynryd Skynyrd, they have a plane crash that kills some of the band, but spares the rest, they'll still be able to play their show that night. You have to respect that.

Prior to the show, Sacklunch and Potsy reminisced about a three day boat trip they took with Jumbo Slice last summer. They were amazed at how lazy Jumbo Slice was--he slept the entire time and when he wasn't sleeping he was sunning himself. Also he didn't help man the jib, or hoist the spinnaker, of whatever you fucking gay assed sailors do out on the water, when you're not cornholing each other. I was able to explain his sloth by revealing that he had most likely spent all his time reading Watership Down, which I lent him before the trip. Watership Down is widely considered to be the Don Quixote of rabbit-themed books, and no one who picks it up can put it down. And so we had come full circle as we talked about a rabbit book, before seeing a rabbit band. Who says it's a random universe?

We made it to DC9 in time to catch most of These New Puritans' set. It provided a real contrast to the White Rabbits. While the aforementioned Rabbits played a set of dense, tightly woven songs, These New Puritans based their sound on repetitive, somewhat droning choruses and spare, simple guitar loops. I thought they were great. Their best songs--"En Papier," "Numerology," and "Elvis"--won't blow any minds with their complexity, but they're incredibly catchy. Also, the women at DC9 were better looking than the ones at Black Cat, which was nice. Additionally, lead singer Jack Barnett was wearing some kind of Roman Empire shirt that made him look like a young Caesar Augustus.

To White Rabbits, I bestow a Rock Club rating of 6.9. Not a bad band. These New Puritans get a 7.6--I would definitely check these guys out again, especially if they continue to play venues as small as DC9. They hit it just right and I'm afraid a bigger stage might muck it up for them.

Doppelgangers are only funny when both are relatively well known. Taking some no account schmuck--you, for instance--and saying he looks like some other stout bearded loser just doesn't work. Someday you'll know all I know but until then I have to pass this wisdom on to you.

How could you dorks miss me at the Rabbits show (don't know what you saw but Greenland killed and Miles Robinson Jingleheimerschmit didn't even have enough "songs" in him to officially suck. Just lots of kids standing around holding instruments basically) as I was the guy that looks like an intense version of Sack but with a Run DMC shirt on. I can beat this hopping as I interviewed Lorelei at the Hut - blazed to the Cat and then left when the Rabbits came on to go back to Iota (2 parking spots from where I had been hours earlier) and say hi to the kids in Junior League - where there was lots of embarrassing noodle dancing - whee!

Stop staring at the bitches next time and introduce yourselves. AND watch Caribou on pitchfork.tv because it is pretty damn good.

I was ecstatic that we made it to both of these shows. I was secretly hoping that TNP would have been our first choice, but a friend had seen White Rabbits when they played the RnRH last time, and said they were great. I thought they put on a good show, and also liked the use of the shaker as a drum stick. It had me mesmerized for some reason.

But the energy of TNP was hard to beat. I was psyched to have recognized 4 of their songs (thank you WOXY).

I don't like to agree with Jimbromski this much publicly, but I have to say he nailed this one. I can see the Gregory Roberts - Back to School connection even.

As for the Titanic scene...all I can say is that I've never felt so alive.

Sad Croc, that's funny, you actually came up in convo that night. We're thinking of releasing a line of exclusive DC Rock Club-branded t-shirts and posters and we need someone with some sort of artistic talent to help us. We will share 1% of the profit with you, plus some stock options for our future IPO.

This is semi-serious, I'd like to talk to you about this, e-mail us when you get a chance (address is on upper right hand corner of the site).